The cartoon reflects the uncertainty of the translator's word choices and pronunciation by obscuring the text with ink blots and overlaying them with synonyms and extra meanings in large, light letters in the background.

For example, in the second panel, "whence" appears in bold letters and "from where" appears behind it in enlarged, lighter letters.

In the third panel "here" is also glossed in the background as "to this fortress".

"I am sorry.Your language is like thosespoken by the [unclear-1] difficult[unclear-2] but I learned it."

"I apologize"..."tongue"..."similar"...

"I"

U-1 & 2: Totally obscured.

"Please be patient"

"Please have patience"

"They understand nöthingso they will tend to matters."

"understand""thus"..."attend"..."matters"

..."bags"

"Your packs"

"They are heavy."

"For"...[unclear-1]

U-1: "weighted"?

"Welcome"

"You are" ... "to it"

"Tell me where your home is."

"Tell" ... "house"

"What river?"

"How many peoplestrong are you?"

..."numerous"

U-1: "...r...n...": strong?

"Which is forty?All my numbers are too small.""Yes! Good."

"What"...

"Do you carry these people with you?"

With the implicit meaning of "did they come with you?" assuming the translator doesn't believe they are Cueball's imaginary friends or action figures.

"Oh.""Oh."

"You do not know.""I [Unclear-1]"

"[Unclear-2]"

U-1: "m... ...se.": "must espouse."?

U-2: "...ll...ina...": Possibly "illuminate"

"Your sea does not stand alone:There is another sea next to it[Unclear-1] beyond the shore.It has become [Unclear-2] to yours [Unclear-3] levels differand thus water flows"...

..."tied"...

U-1: Totally obscured.U-2: "s...ed"U-3: "b...": because? but their?

"In time even the hills change.When people first [Unclear-1] and firstbuilt [Unclear-2] cities the seas were joined.but there was a great [Unclear-3]rock [Unclear-4] and the passage was closed.Your sea [Unclear-5] with too few rivers.Under the sun it shrank and the water fell.The sea has found a way back in."

"This castle was once an island.We found it and have tried to rebuild it."

..."fortress"..."on"..."[Unclear-1]"

U-1: "...a...red": Appeared?

"I guessit will be an island again."

..."imagine"..."suppose"......"island again"

"We are learners/teachers.*This fortress[Unclear-1] with learners/teachers*and I am their teacher/leader.*"

..."scholars"

..."ruler"

U-1: "..ar..s": shares/guards[ * ] Unlike most alt text, the "learners" and "teachers" in the first and third lines are both presented as the correct translation. Similarly "teacher" and "leader" in the last line.

"I am so sorry."

"[Unclear-1]"..."sorrow"

U-1: "w...re"

"When we discovered the sea was [Unclear-1]under the bank we tried to shore it up.We failed.We tried to remove everybody from the basin,but we did not know of your tribe."

"flowing""berm"..."repair"

[Unclear-2]"group"

U-1: "s...ing": seeping?

U-2: "...ea": sea? area?

"No."

"As the water flows, it widens the breach.The berm is giving way.The sea will rush through in a [Unclear-1] torrent.The planet's mightiest river will once againcome thundering down the mountainside.The sea will fillnot in yearsbut in days."

"channel"

"history's"

U-1: "g...": giant? great? gushing?

"The journey to your land is much too long.[Unclear-1] not send [Unclear-2] only to see themencircled and drowned by the rising tide."

"rushing"..."water"

U-1: "...l": I'll? I will?U-2: "...s": Friends?

"The world you knew is endingbut fortune has deliveredyou from the flood.You did not intend to leave your home foreverbut be thankful you left when you did."

"grateful"

"You must say your goodbyes from here.You cannot go back down into the abyss.For you have walked too farand now there is no more time to walk.The ocean is coming."

Search

Navigation

Tools

It seems you are using noscript, which is stopping our project wonderful ads from working. Explain xkcd uses ads to pay for bandwidth, and we manually approve all our advertisers, and our ads are restricted to unobtrusive images and slow animated GIFs. If you found this site helpful, please consider whitelisting us.